001Good evening everyone. Welcome to Leort ISD and thank you for being here. It is now 7:01 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, 2025 and I hereby call this meeting to order. Notice of this meeting was posted in a manner required by law at 5:00 p.m. Friday, May 9th. The subjects to be discussed and or considered or upon any formal action may be taken have been listed. The board of trustees of the Port Independent School District is now convened. Let the record show that trustee Perez is out of town at a previous commitment. However, all others are in attendance and a quorum is present. As Leaport Board of Trustees, every student success is our number one priority. We are here to set goals, to adopt policy, approve budgets, contracts, personnel appointments, and communicate the district's vision and success
002to the community. It is not the role of the board to make day-to-day operational decisions. The management and day-to-day operations of the district are the responsibility of the superintendent. This is a public meeting of the board of trustees, not a meeting of the public. School board meetings are open to all who wish to attend and hear the matters discussed. However, audience participation is limited to the stakeholder presentation portion of the meeting. The board members may not respond to those comments made in the public comment section. These proceedings may be recorded and I respectfully ask that you please refrain from talking while others are speaking. At this time, will you please stand for the presentation of colors led by Leaport High School ROC? On the American flag, we have Cadet Sergeant Jacob Kotrael, Texas Flag Cadet
003Second Lieutenant Mahina Chespro, American Rifle Private First Class Emily Masten, and Texas Rifle Cadet Sergeant Michael Lear. Present. You'll join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. I aliance to thee, Texas. One state one and indivisible. Order color. Ready. See, present. Arms. Order. Arms. Center face. March time. March. Glor. At this time, I ask that you please bow your head for tonight's invitation given by Trustee Deianne Thompson. Lord, Lord, as we come before you tonight, we come with grateful hearts. Grateful for our district leaders, teachers, staff, parents, and most especially our students. We are grateful for
004our supportive community and all that they do. As we approach the end of the school year and all the celebration that that involves, may we ever be reminded that it was you who guided us and watched over each one of us. We thank you for that protection. Bless all in attendance tonight and grant our board the wisdom to conduct business of the district with discernment. Let all that is done be to your glory. Amen. Amen. May be seated. On March 11th, 2025, the board of trustees declared each unopposed candidate elected in their respective office and cancelled the May 3rd, 2025 general trustee election. A certificate of election shall be issued to each candidate in in the same manner as provided for a candidate elected in an election. The reelected trustees will now sign their officer
005statement, which will be retained with the official records of the board. Mr. Crutcher, Miss Thompson, the trustees will now complete their oath of office which will be retained in the official records of the board. We are going to continue. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of school board trustee and of the office of school board trustee for the Leaport Independent School District for the Leaport Independent School District of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws the Constitution and
006laws of the United States and the State of Texas. of the United States and the State of Texas. So help me God. So help me God. Stop looking nice. As they wrap up, we are going to move to item six, our board recognitions. And tonight's recognitions will be presented by director of communications, Mr. Adam Ho. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. To begin our uh recognition portion of the meeting, I introduce you to Heritage Elementary Third Grade Select Choir under the direction of Miss Jamie Lupold. Good evening. I'm the music and art teacher at Heritage Elementary. These are select students from our third grade classes and we're going to be performing a medley of international music. The main title is this is a song for the children. Um this is going to be a different year
007for us next year with our bilingual students moving over to Rudo. So we will miss them dearly and we're happy to include them in our group tonight. We appreciate all of our families bringing their kids out this evening, even though there's lots of ball games going on right now, too. So, without further ado, these are our third graders singing. This is a song for the children. They will be singing in addition to the English song, Spanish, German, and Russian. And our soloist is Miss [Music] McKenley. Right here. This is all for the children all over the world. [Music] Mexico, Russia, America, and Tokyo. We are in the future. Give us the freedom to [Music] So you know I join. Heat. Heat. [Music] Having new friends can be like living in one great big family. Oh
008my try again. My moose needs to dry again. So there needs my children. [Music] Oh, heat, heat. [Music] Galing you for They know you for your Jes. Granding down here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Yes. Having new friends can be like living in one great big family. [Music] Heat. Heat. That was awesome. Awesome. We're trying to be very impressive. Good job, Cheers. Good. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Ladies and gentlemen, Leaport High School senior Orisa Rodriguez and junior Ulysus Feliz kept Leaport High School's statewide reputation as a track and field powerhouse well intact recently as both student athletes finished in the top in in the 300 meter hurdles. Okay. All right. Leaport High School senior Arisa Rodriguez and junior Ulysus Feliz kept Leaport High School's statewide reputation as a track and field powerhouse well intact recently
009as both student athletes finished in the top 10 in the 300 meter hurdles. Orisa um who is no stranger to state meets by the way will soon take her talents to Lamar University. Ulysus will be a senior at Leaport High School next school year and we have no doubt that we'll be honoring him again in 2026. Congratulations to both of you. Congratulations. [Music] Come on. We [Music] will Ashley Campbell, a second grade teacher at Jenny Reed Elementary School, has been honored as the 2025 Rookie Teacher of the Year. This prestigious award recognizes firstear educators who demonstrate exceptional dedication, leadership, and impact in the classroom. Campbell began in Leaport ISD at Lommax Elementary School as a special education paraprofessional back in 2021. She joined Jenny Reid Elementary at the midpoint of this past school year as
010a classroom teacher. Congratulations again. She's coming. Each year around February and March, staff members at Leaport ISD campuses select their teacher of the year. Honores are chosen by their peers for their ability as skilled teachers and a love of teaching and learning among several other characteristics. Introducing our 2526 campus teachers of the year. We'll begin with elementary Beayshore Elementary, Taylor Harris Guerrero, College Park Elementary. Diana Lavin Heritage Elementary. Amanda Hardrove Jenny Reid Elementary. Lorena Artiaga. [Applause] Leaport Elementary. Rhonda Nighton, Lommax Elementary. Caitlyn Bert. And from Leo A. Rudo Elementary. The Cheryl Prantle. Congratulations Double just Now introducing our secondary campus teachers of the year for 2526. James H.Baker, sixth grade campus, Christina [Applause] Hoffman, Leort Junior High. Nicole Hamilton, Lommax Junior High. Jessica Ward, Leaport High School Corps. Beck Neil commencs. The Academy of Viola
011DeWalt High School Bo Estrada and I believe uh Mr. Estrada is at a a child's baseball game or something. He did tell me that secondary D AE Wayne Dstada. We will recognize all of these folks again later this week on Thursday. It is our service awards and at that uh at the service awards that's when we announce the district teachers of the year. Congratulations to all of you. Congratulations. And now I would like to introduce you to Angie Vitor, our executive director of teaching, learning, and leadership, who will additionally recognize some staff members. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming tonight. I just wanted to say we're very excited to introduce our aspiring leaders to our board of trustees and our community. The goal of our aspiring leadership academy is to inspire, support, and grow
012our future campus and district leaders. Our district long district, I'm sorry, our year-long program provides opportunities for our aspiring leaders to collaborate together, gain insight from other leaders around our district and other leaders in the field. Whether our aspiring leaders want to grow in their current roles or have aspirations to to pursue campus and district leadership, we are very proud to provide this program that supports our district goal to develop leaders, giving our aspiring leaders opportunities to learn from one another. So, we are very proud to say that this is our fourth aspiring leadership cohort and they work together to inspire and motivate us as well as each other. Um we do have approximately 20 former aspiring leaders who have taken on new leadership roles in our district um from just the various respective cohorts
013and we are very very proud of this group and we look forward to them having opportunities here in the district um with us. All right. So I want to just have a warm welcome for our aspiring leaders. If you'll come up to be recognized please um Christina Davidson Congratulations. Yes, absolutely. Cassidy Dill was not able to join us. There she is at a baseball game. Oh, Cassidy, you made it. Okay, come on up, Cassidy Dill. So glad you made it. We have uh Courtney Flores. We have Jessica Gun. Congratulations, Jessica. Okay. And we have Donette Harris, Savannah Keeler, Mr. Douglas Clout, who was not able to be with us tonight. We have Natalie Melton, Kelly Mules, back meal. He's here for two recognitions. So proud of them. Elizabeth Owens, Dylan Relle, Jarus Roman, and Haley
014Stone. I just want to say congratulations to our aspiring leaders. They've worked very hard. Some of them have family members out here. Wave if you're a family member of an aspiring leader. Yay. Thank y'all for joining us. All right. Congratulations. Congratulations. Now, I would like to introduce you to Miss Terry Cook, the coordinator uh for our district's partners in education program. This evening in our community recognitions, we are excited to recognize the winners of the Silven Beach Festival Parade this year. The annual festival as a project of the Leort Bayore Chamber of Commerce with support from many other area businesses and organizations and it was held on Saturday, April 26th with the following floats earning top honors. The first award is for judges overall favorite. It goes to Templo Bautista de Abla Espa. The most
015original entry went to Whimsy Home Decor. Best themed entry went to Jenny Reed Elementary School. And best showmanship went to Lomax Elementary School. Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you for your participation in the Silver Beach Festival Parade. [Music] Heat. Heat. That's the funniest part. It's like nobody's left. All the coaches have to stay. Imagine you just think Heat. Heat. All right, exciting stuff. We'll move on to item seven, public comment. The board will now hear those who wish to make comments and who have completed and return the public comment participation request. This section will be conducted in accordance to the Texas Open Meetings Act and board policy. As such, this is a reminder that board members may not respond to those comments made in the public comment section. Complaints and/or concerns for
016which other resolution channels are provided shall be directed through your channels. Vice President Martin, do we have any registered speakers? Mr. President, we do not have any registered speakers. All right. Please note for the record, we do not have any registered speakers. So, we'll move on to our action items eight. Dr. Jackson. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, under the superintendent's report and legislative update, you have a copy of the board's report and update, and I will just use this time to introduce two new hires to the uh, district board. I'm pleased to introduce to you Miss Alicia Pales. Alicia has been selected to serve as the new principal at Lommax Elementary. Let's give her a hand. Keep standing, Alicia. Alicia is a longtime employee and a leader in Leaport ISD. And Alicia has 14 years
017experience in public education. She has served on the Lomax Elementary campus for the past 13 years as a fourth grade student teacher, fourth grade math teacher, math and reading interventionist, and she is currently the assistant principal at LMAX before accepting the principal role. Before working in Leaport, Alicia taught in Pasadena Pasadena ISD for a year. She brings to the principal role a wealth of knowledge about Lomax Elementary and its culture, its students, and its staff that honestly very few share. She has worked under and learned from the leadership of some of Lefort's finest principles, Dr. Alicia of Church, Patty Herrera Johnson, Tracy Greenwood, and Diane Weeden. We are excited and confident that Alicia will continue to move Lommax Elementary in a positive direction. Please join me, ladies and gentlemen, in welcoming to the principal ship,
018Miss Alic Alicia. Would you would you like to introduce anybody or would you like to have any words? They're all baseball games. Thank you. Thank you and welcome. Thank you. Mr. President, I'm equally excited and happy to introduce to to the board and the community uh Dr. Amanda Smith. It's an honor to introduce Amanda. All right, give her a hand. It's an honor to introduce Dr. Amanda Smith as the new director of research, accountability, and federal programs for Leaport ISD. Dr. Smith brings over 20 years of experience in public education with a strong record of instructional leadership, program development, and student centered service. She began her career as a middle school science teacher in Perilan ISD, where she quickly took on leadership roles, including department chair, campus mentor, and district curriculum writer. Her her passion
019for supporting both students and teachers led her into administration beginning with Perilin ISD's aspiring administrator academy. In 2016, Dr. Smith joined Alvin ISD where she uh advanced through a series of leadership positions from advanced academics specialist to director of advanced academics. In this role, she led the design and implementation of district-wide programs for gifted education, STEMmies, and advanced placement while also managing assessment systems, budgets, and a team of over 30 instructional specialists. Dr. Smith holds a bachelor's degree in middle childhood education and general studies from the University of Toledo, a master's degree in teacher leadership and principal certification from Lamar University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Houston Clear Lake, where she received a Sandra Mossman outstanding dissertation award. Congratulations. She currently serves as an adjunct professor in UHCL's doctoral program
020and is active uh in state level gifted education leadership through the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. In 2024, Dr. Smith was named the TAGT administrator of the year for the state of Texas. I think that deserves a handout. With a strong foundation in curriculum, datadriven planning, and equitable access to academic opportunities, Dr. Smith is well positioned to lead Leaport ISD's accountability and federal programs with excellence. Please join me one more time in welcoming Dr. Amanda Smith. Amanda, did you did you bring a guest? I did. I have with me my husband Jeffrey, my son James who's in college at Texas State, and my aunt Cotty Hill who actually used to work for ISD and is a resident of Shore Acres. All right. All right. You're welcome. That will conclude the superintendent's remarks, Mr.
021President. Yes, sir. We will now move on to item AB, the HCA healthc care clinic presentation. Hello. Good evening. Good evening. Stand cuz I I've been taught to not put my back to being focused. You're right where you need to be. And it protects itself. Yes. All right. Well, good evening everybody. My name is Yasmine McDaniel and I'm the CEO of HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast that is in Pasadena and I have with me um this evening um Wii Okalon who is our director of physician services and I'm here today to speak with you about the employee wellness option that we offer within our healthcare system. Um so within HCA we are a healthcare missiondriven organization. So we do start every meeting and every conversation that we have with our mission statement as well as a
022connect to purpose. The reason we do this is because we do very serious work. We do um very important work when our community needs us the most. That's where we are. And so we start every conversation with that to kind of center everyone as to why we do what we do. So our mission statement is printed in all of the different areas. So, if you don't mind joining me in stating that above all else, we are committed to the care and improvement of human lives. So, we're going to consider that a practice. Not everybody got there. So, I'm sorry. So, everybody will join me with that. Above all, we are committed to the care and improvement of human life. All right. So um the connect department that I'd like to share with you today is
023about our CV program or our cardiovascular program. Um we have a cardiovascular surgeon there Dr. Moyedine and he had a patient that he'd been seeing ultimately who's going to have to take him to surgery and really let him know that his life before he came to the hospital may not be the same when he leaves. Up until that point the patient had been optimistic and was like ready to overcome this challenge. Um, but on this day when he came to visit him, he seemed a little bit sad and really wasn't into it, right? And so Dr. Muedine just sat down in a human to connect with him and said, "What's the guy? What's wrong?" And he's like, "Honestly, Doc, I just want a donut. Like, I've been here for about four or five days. I'm
024on the diet. I know what I need to do, but I just need a donut." And so, um, Dr. pointed um in true CV surgeon fashion call somebody else and had everyone begin searching for a donut. And so we found different donuts in a variety of different places and presented them there to this patient um and gave him a small piece of it right at that point in time. He completely changed his outlook. The reason I bring this story not only to you guys but to um all the the different forums that we meet within the hospital walls is because we understand we're taking care of people, right? And going to a hospital or having any sort of health condition is a disruption in your normal life and you don't feel human. Healthcare is the
025only industry where I say, "Hi, my name is Yasmi. Will you please take off your clothes?" No one else gets to do that, but we do. So within that aspect, we need to remember at the end of the day, we are taking care of a human. And Dr. Moadine offered this patient the opportunity to just have a little bit of comfort and to feel like a human. And let's face it, every now and then you just need a donut. So wanted to share this story with you all as a connect to purpose as to why we do what we do every day. So, looking at our hospital and getting down to business, um I know you guys may or may not be familiar with the HCA name. Um many of you, um even as I
026was sitting in the audience um preparing to listen to the meeting, um was sitting next to someone and said, you know, "Hey, my name's Yasmine because I'm a talker." And um he said, "Yeah, I've been to Beayshore before." And I'm like, "Okay, yeah, we're we're Beayshore, but we're also HCA Healthcare." And so HCA healthcare is the largest healthcare enterprise in the entire world. So globally we are the largest healthcare enterprise. So behind what is formerly known as Beayshore, you have literally the power of the HCA enterprise. We have over 180 hospitals across the entire world including in London and the UK. Um we employ um hundreds of thousands of physicians. Um we have partnerships within the um f within the supply chain so that we are able to get um equipment when most can't um
027during co we were actually our president and CEO was actually the person that was working with the federal organization in order to get those life savings equipment because we have such a strong supply chain. So really we have best practices that are proven um across the the country. Zooming down to our hospital there um in Pasadena last year we saw over 175,000 patient encounters delivered over 2500 babies for this community and then when the community really did need us the most. We provided over a 100,000 emergency care visits. Right. So we have been here for over 63 years. We have accredited programs. We're a level three trauma center, a level three NICU designation. We have a level three maternal designation. We're a primary stroke center. And the list goes on and on. And the reason
028I bring those up is because these aren't things that I just get to say because there are things to say. These are processes that we've gone in. We've had third parties come in and measure our quality outcomes across all other hospitals in the country and therefore earn these accreditations um to say that we not only provide excellent care, we have the outcomes that prove that. So, moving to that, this is my brag slide. I bring this out because this is a lot of great things to be proud of um at the hospital and to have right here in the community. Um there's lots of different things, but I'd really like to just point your eyes to that right that column right there in the middle of the page. those four. Oh my gosh, my my
029fourth grade geometry teacher would be so just like crazy like what shape is that hexagon, right? Six hexagon. Um the blue hexagon right there and then go straight down makes it even worse than my mom's a teacher. Um so then beyond that, you'll see the number one is America's 250 best hospitals. We've won that award for the past two years in a row. Not every hospital gets to say that. Actually less than 5% of the hospitals in the entire country get to say that. And now we get to say that for two years in a row. In addition to that, we have won the patient safety and excellence award for the past four years. Um surgical care and critical good care excellence for the past two years. And then this year um we won the
030award for gastrointestinal surgery. And then you'll see a variety of other from other um awards across the country. So literally right here in your backyard you have awardwinning nationally recognized hospital and healthc care services. So as that relates to um this organization and bringing here within that network we have a strategy and a framework and that really is to make sure that our communities are healthy. Obviously, we have our ERS. We have our May ER at the hospital and then we have two others, one over off of Fairmont and then one at Beltway 8 in Wallisville. And we will want to be there when you need us. But beyond that, we want to make sure that our community is healthy. And so really investing into those wellness programs when people need that help, when they
031need health checkups, when they're just not understanding what is going on. And so that is the framework from which we come at. Um with that we collaborate with those health services across our vast network. Obviously we have the main acute care hospital which I've been talking to you about. We also have a postacute hospital that's dedicated to rehabilitative services that's at the belly in Krenshaw with our HCA Houston healthcare rehab hospital where we have an inpatient rehab unit as well as a skilled nursing unit. Um, in addition to that, we have Solless Mimography sites, one there in Pasadena, one that's coming in Deer Park, and then another that's coming later on this year in Mount Belleview. Um, we have our Care Now network, um, as well as a variety of specialty clinics. So that means
032if you come in to one of our wellness clinics and it's determined you need a cardiology visit or a GI visit or a whatever other specialty visit within our network. We can help you quickly get to the specialist that you need which now is not always as easy as it should be. But we have the ability to do that. We also have a transfer center that can then transfer you to a higher level of care if necessary and needed. Right. that keeping health care local as often as we can. So with looking at that again how it relates to keeping your workforce um healthy overall it decrease healthc care costs right people we can catch it early detection is key in a variety of healthcare um arenas and so keeping it early which then keeps
033the cost down. What that means to, you know, you and I, is if I go to my primary care office, I pay $20 for a copay, right? If I go to a care now facility or an urgent care, I may pay 50. If I go to an ER, I may pay 250. Right? So if you can get it early with your primary care with a wellness center then we can help move you through the continuum cutting down costs for the individual as well as for the organization that is supporting that individual. Um also it decreases workers compensation. If I can catch that I have back pain now, then six six months from now when I'm picking up something that I probably may have stopped myself, but I feel that like I'm Wonder Woman, so I
034can do all things, then maybe that will help prevent that. Um, it decreases employee absenteeism. We've seen that time and time again. We currently have wellness clinics with Pasadena ISD that's been there um for many, many years and then one most recently with Goose Creek ISD. What that means is if I'm not feeling well, I can go in to this clinic that is located somewhere within my campus, be seen, and then go over to where I need to go. Right? Other than that, I may have to take off the entire day because I have to go to a clinic office, see where it is, sit there, and do those things. So, really that quick turnaround. And then really, our goal is to increase your employee satisfaction. It's really important that my organization cares about me
035as a person. And what better way to say that you care about me as a person than to take a moment to care about my healthcare and then create an access for me to take care of myself in a manner that um many people don't always take the time to take care of themselves. Um so this is just a sample of an wellness clinic model and what we have there. A space that is identified by partnership between the organization. So in this case for ISD and our um and our organization will identify a clinic space typically two to three exam rooms um to where we can handle any of those basic primary care needs right there with them on campus or in a convenient location for most of the staff. Um, in addition to that,
036we offer um really episodic things. So, if there is an acute incident, there is a health care professional on site that can provide that for you. If there's any sort of point of care testing like flu, strep, COVID that's needed, we're able to do that. Um, because of our organization and the breadth that we have, there is an ability to keep some of those health care costs down. Um as well as we can provide to this board a monthly package to say you know hey maybe this is something you should consider um for the overall health of your excuse me overall health of your patient or your patient your employee population in that um so with that these are just some of the things we have tea health so people can call in um we
037have clinic metrics that we'll be able to provide including the demographics and even the referrals the reason I zoom in on the referrals is because if we are sending a variety of people from your organization um to cardiology for instance, right? So then when it comes time for um February, we have physicians that work with us that can come in and do some education regarding cardiac health, when to detect it, early detection, because when you are having a heart attack heart attack, very rarely does it present as an opportunity where I need to grab my chest. it can present as back pain, as shoulder pain, as something else, but to really be able to provide that ongoing education so that people are aware um of of their bodies. We only get one and so we
038want to be able to make sure that we're taking care of it well. Um with that, these are just a couple of the quotes from some of the people that we already work with. Again, we have a long-standing clinic with Pasadena ISD as well as most recently um we've opened a center with our Goose Creek ISD partners offering them same or similar services. Um our primary contacts for this I believe you all already know Lindsay Swanigan who is our VP of outpatient services and then we have Linda T. Arena who is our employer relations specialist. So that is my high-level overview. I am happy to field any questions if you would allow for president. Yes, sir. I will say that I have the pleasure of serving on Yasm mean's board and I sit there, we
039have a a trustee from Pasadena's been a trustee for a long time and I've heard all the great things that are happening in Pasadena. She said it's been a phenomenal blessing to Pasadena Independent School District have this wellness program for their employees. Not only that, it has cut their cost. And you'll have to explain how that works, but I hear it cut their cost. So for from my perspective, this this is like makes my heart happy because with rising cost of everything, we're always looking at ways to get additional benefits that aren't going to cost the district an arm and a leg. They can help the whole district. And so um I begged and pleaded with you as me. I thought it'd be a difficult sale. I was like, "Man, what do we got to
040do to bring this little porch?" He said, "Well, set a meeting." So Dr. Jackson, uh thank you, sir. He he set a meeting with Lindsay and Linda. And uh he walked out of that meeting and said, "We got a spot for him." And says he's like, "Pump your brakes a little bit. We got to slow down, but we we are they left the meeting and followed me to the spot. I wanted to show them. So, we're we're excited. Um we have uh I believe Dr. Jackson invited our city manager, Cory Alexander, in the back of the room and Mayor Rick Hilton. Ola. Uh I think our hope is that we can utilize this service for our employees, our families, but also possibly our city staff. Right. So, um I'm very excited that you guys are
041presenting this to us and I hope uh praying that we can figure out how to make this work because I think it'll be a great service to our people. special. That's right. Yeah. I want to take a moment to to acknowledge Jeff Martin's efforts on this. This has been a crusade for him for sure and and we've got to get creative in this economic climate. You know, you got to find ways to to take care of your your staff and uh this has been a thing that he really has has been working. And obviously you all have a good relationship and the presentation is fantastic and I hope we can work on these details because this is definitely something a point of difference between us and and some of our competitors competitors. So I have
042a question. This may be too detailed. Um so I just want to make sure I'm understanding. Say we have an employee who is actually covered by her husband's insurance, not through TRS. Does that matter as long as him or her is an employee of our district? So that really depends upon how we structure the contract. Okay. From the basis of it, sure, we can see them. We're there to take anybody. Uhhuh. Um but depending upon how we structure it, it will go directly for employees only or employees that are covered by others. So it really is at this point in phase, it's what makes the most sense for your organization. Okay. And um followup to that, just say someone comes in for a blood draw or uh you know they've got strep or whatever, are
043they just paying a co-ay at that point? Are we filing their insurance or I mean what what how does that work? So, and I'll let Wy go into the details of this. Again, it really depends on how we structure the contract. Um, in most cases it just makes the most sense for us to file the insurance um, and then collect the co-ay as normal clinic that's just here on site. In most cases, that's what makes the most sense. So, just like a primary care co-ay, right? In most cases, that is the what makes the most sense. You're obviously funding an insurance company um, for your colleagues and staff. Um, so you want to be able to utilize what you're already paying for. Um, however, if that's not the route that you would want to do,
044there are different mechanisms which are a little bit more challenging to where we can keep track of those and then build directly or come up with some sort of capacitated basis. But in most cases, most direct pathway would be just to utilize their insurance. Okay. All right. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. I think it's, you know, a plus for our staff and their families to be able to have access that would be closer for them and um, you know, they could come before school, after school, on their lunch break or whatever. Um, yeah, their conference period or whatever. And, um, you know, we're always looking for ways to uh, incentivize being a bulldog. So, I I like the idea of this a lot. Hey, you even go to the doctor if it was
045right here? probably have to drive somewhere. Yeah, exactly. Lizzy, when she presented to us, she also said it is a possibility to set it up in such a way that the the employees don't pay anything right on the deductible, right? So, again, I know we have to work all that logistics out, but uh again, hopefully figure out a way to make that happen because that would be phenomenal. Yes. And you know, through the contractor, how we set it up, um there'll be a management fee, which is a flat rate. So, we'll be able to service your employees, um, your teachers, however, and just pass it through that way. And one of the benefits because we are HCA, we get special pricing, um, you know, with vendors cuz we're such a large organization. And so through
046Quest, McKessen, LabCorp, um, you know, you guys are able to benefit from those uh, discounts that we get. Awesome. Yeah. Wonderful. Board, any other questions? No, I just the comment that I have is like personally with with all my healthcare and with my families, I try to have it in one location in one place and just having the the ease of that just makes it easier for me as a parent and an employer and, you know, a busy mom to to be able to do that. So, I I just think that um it it does have the potential to benefit our our staff tremendously and um so I'm very very interested to see what we can do. Okay, I have one more question. On an average day, it's probably not an average day in healthcare,
047right? But on an average day um for one of your other districts, what's the number of people that you see? Say for you said Pasadena is one on a um average day 20 25 um depending if it's a nurse practitioner, if it's an MD, we could see up to 35 patients really just, you know, depending on the season. If it's flu season, it's going to be that high zoning of time. you know if it's a slow season then you know adjust that way. Okay. I think most people think okay these are your teachers your pair professionals but there's also the portion that goes along with your bus drivers all staff our maintenance everybody. Yeah. Well and we we certainly would like to have a discussion certainly with you after this meeting uh and we'll do
048that but with with possibly the city and see if the city would even may want to partner with us. And you know, it doesn't have to happen like that, but the more the merrier, I would think, because it would just keep the the facility busy. So, thank you all so much for Thank you all so much. Thank you. Good job. I wasn't blowing smoke. I I really mean that uh emphatically. Uh Jeff has really made a point and and educates the board on a pretty regular basis. Um and obviously he's got a strong network and we've we heard about this um prior to this presentation and it's it's really exciting and I think it's going to be a huge point difference. So kudos to you. I appreciate you saying that but really it's Dr. Jackson
049and the team and you guys cuz again they have to we bring up all kinds of stuff, right? Not all of them are great ideas. Lord yes. Yeah. So but this one day we're hoping this is a great idea. A great opportunity. Great partnership. Great opportunity for us. All right board. We're going to move on to item 8 C, our athletic department update. I don't think it went over badly at all. Howdy, ma'am. Howdy. All right. Am I rolling? Okay. Uh good evening uh President Hanks and board of trustees and and Dr. Jackson. Um I first want to thank all of y'all uh for your continued support this school year. We had another great uh great year for Leaport athletics. We had some extended uh playoff runs. We had state and regional qualifiers uh individually
050and and as as a team and and you guys were there rooting us on uh the whole time. So, I really appreciate that and and just know that um your support and your investment, it really makes a big difference in our student athletes and our coaches. So, thank you all you all for that. Um tonight, I'm proud to share uh some of those accomplishments from this past season um and really to reflect on the hard work of our uh student athletes and our coaches, many of whom are are here tonight. So, I want to go ahead and recognize um any any coaches that are here. you can wave, stand up, but um I I truly believe that they're some of the best in the business. Um and and really the the work put in by
051our student athletes and our coaches this year, it really, you know, it really represents Leaport ISD well. So, I'm I'm really proud again tonight to to talk about some of those accomplishments and what you guys can expect from us um next school year. All right. Athletics by the numbers. So this year we had 1,189 student athletes um both at the high school and at the junior high. Uh 715 at the high school and and 474 at the junior high. It's about a 70 athlete increase from from last year. Um in terms of number of competitions, uh we had an uptick in that also because of our our postseason success with a lot of our programs. So 1,359 uh competitions uh this year in in Leaport athletics. So we're we were busy. Yep. I want to
052recognize um our district championships. Uh we had three uh team district championships this year um in both 115A and 25A because we do compete in two different districts for um football and our other sports. Um for football, uh back-to-back district champs. Um this year we finished undefeated um in district play and we went four rounds deep. So that was that was exciting. Um, next, uh, recognizing our our Lady Dog basketball program, uh, district champs. Um, we went three rounds deep in the playoffs and and finished up, uh, area champions. And then last but not least, Bulldog baseball. They finished up this this past weekend. They were, uh, 25A district champs, I think, for the first time since 2018, 19, six years, coach. Uh, so kudos to them. And they finished up, uh, the season as
053as by district champions. So super proud of, of these programs. It was it was a great year from a from a from a team championship standpoint. That's for sure. I next want to recognize our UIL state qualifiers and we had five of them. Um first up we have Gianna Palomar Maharez. She's a freshman cross country runner and she qualified for the cross country meet uh this past fall as a freshman which is pretty impressive. Also, these are two familiar faces from from earlier this evening. Uh Ulissiz Feliz, he's a junior. He qualified for the state meet um in the 300 meter hurdles and he he finished in fifth place. Um Arisa Rodriguez, she's a she's a senior. Uh she qualified for the state meet also in the in the 300 meter hurdles and she finished
054in sixth place and she'll be running at at Lamar University next year. So, look forward to watching her there. And then we have our powerlifters. Uh Samantha Gilder, she's a sophomore. um she PRD at the state meet and finished in 15th place. Hannah Stafford, freshman powerlifter, she also PR at the state meet and finished in eighth place. And and these two young ladies represent only the third and fourth um state qualifiers ever in that program for Leaport ISD. So So kudos to them and and their coaches as well. So moving on to some some more detailed um accomplishments within our program. uh honors and recognitions not only for our student athletes but but also our coaching staff. Um at the high school level, 80% of our programs advanced to the pro to the postseason. So
055that's that's a backto-backer. Also, we had we had we had the same percentage last year. Three UIL regional qualifying teams. Multiple individual district champions um in in track and field and also tennis and and to mention tennis, we had our very first boys single champion um in district 25A play in Chris Baragon. And so that was that was super impressive um for him and also his brother who's our who's our head tennis coach. So pretty cool. Um we had 14 powerlifting region regional qualifiers. Uh three district coaches of the year, seven allstate and four academic all-state uh football players. Uh TABC, that's Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, uh all region basketball selection. 60 academic all district team members from district 115A and also 25A. And last but not least, we had 17 student athletes uh
056signed to compete at the next level with our spring signing taking place last week where we we had 14 student athletes sign and it was it was a diverse group. We had two dancers, we had a cheerleader and a and a bowler, not to mention our our football players, track and field athletes, um and softball players and one basketball player. So, that's always a fun time for us, especially in the spring. Um it's it's quite the scene to see them all all lined up and it's always great to hear um their coaches say say great things about them. So congrats to those student athlete signes. Um our junior high equally successful. Our our junior high coaches and programs do a great job getting those students ready uh for the next level as as a feeder
057program. This year we had eight uh Bay Area league tournament qualifying teams. We had one Bay Area League championship in our Lommax 7A football team and we had four Bay Area League individual track and field champions. So, congrats to them. They do a great job for us. Um, that's an important aspect of our athletic program is is that that feeder system. What's new for 2526? It's the obvious. Bulldog Stadium and our legacy complex. So, you know, we talked about a lot of those accolades and accomplishments in the previous slide, but we we got to remember that there was several programs that have been displaced for the last 2 years. Um, and they've they've never let that be an excuse to not perform at the highest level. Um, our coaches, you know, working to get them
058to practices, you know, road warriors playing every home game two seasons with with coach Bon and the football team. So, I'm super proud of them and our and our athletes. and we're we're we're going to be really excited to be able to walk out the back door and and and compete um in our in our in our own stadium. So, looking forward to that and obviously looking forward to test driving in a little bit uh tomorrow as well with the spring game. So, what can we expect in terms of competitions? What we know we're going to have eight varsity home football games in Bulldog Stadium, uh 10 subarsity games, 40 plus subarity and varsity uh home soccer games in the stadium. Beayshore Olympics will will return. We are also going to host the 25A uh
059varsity and JV district meets um and as well as the area track meet which matches up uh 195A and 25A. So we we be we'll be busy um in the spring with those track meets. So we're we're super excited about about that um and and and being able again to be back in Bulldog Stadium. So, uh, just want to update the board on some athletic initiatives that some of these were mentioned in in my, uh, uh, presentation last year, just to give you an update. And there's some new things that we we started, uh, this school year that I want to make you guys aware of. Um, our LPISD athletes of the week. Um, you may have seen them on our social media platforms, Facebook and X or or Twitter. Um, we send out we
060send out questionnaires to coaches every week and we are able to recognize two high school students, two Lomax uh students and two LPJ students every week. So that that comes out to about 134 student athletes athletes that we celebrate have celebrated um this school year and and and really sometimes it's performance based, sometimes it's a kid that does really well in a game or hits a game-winning shot or whatever, but a lot of times it's just in intangible qualities. they show up, they they do the workout in the offseason. Um maybe displayed great citizenship um in the school in the hallways or good sportsmanship on the playing field. So that's been a that's been an exciting um initiative for us that we started uh this school year. Next we have our summer uh sack camp
061expansion. Last year uh I presented to the board our our foundational camp for sixth graders that we had at the end of the summer. We only had it for a week and I think we had 25 30 incoming sixth graders participate. So, we decided this year, what the heck, let's expand our summer strength and conditioning to include our incoming sixth graders. You know, we've been working with our Baker PE uh coaches on foundational athletic movement. So, we're opening up a SAP camp this year to any incoming sixth grader um to be able to participate. So, that's that's going to be exciting. We anticipate and I think uh the last couple years we've had around 400 student athletes participate in that camp. all summer starting June 9th. Um so as of right now I think we've
062had we almost have close to 300 students signed up. So that's that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Um next the Leaport High School Captain's Council I spoke on this uh last year in my presentation and we were able to get this off the ground. I asked um coaches to to give us two to three names of of any captain or or or students that have displayed leadership qualities in their programs. Um, we were able to meet quarterly, so twice twice a semester this year. And really our focus in those meetings is is character, leadership, development, you know, working with those kids to to to learn how to lead their own peers, which that can be a challenge. Um, and also just having confidence in in those roles as as captains within their program.
063So, you know, we're going to tweak it a little bit next year. You know, maybe smaller groups like look at different um seasonal like if football's in season, volleyball's in season, cross country, have them meet. Um because one thing we did learn is when you have 30 plus students and somebody standing in front, they don't they don't want to talk to each other. So we think a small smaller group setting will will make that program a lot more effective. So we'll we'll continue to grow that. Um last but not least, our athletic recruiting program, our district athletic recruiting coordinator, Coach Whitley. Um he's done a really good job of of organizing and putting on our our district signings that we've had. We have we have three per year. Um this year we started having recruiting
064seminars. We had two at the high school, one in the fall and one in and one in the spring. And we also had a recruiting seminar at at Lomax and at LPJ um targeting those eighth graders coming in as nth graders. Um we had those in the spring. So really our focus for those seminars is to to help parents understand the process specifically for those incoming ninth graders, let them know that that your freshman year matters. Um, and also to kind of outline parent roles and student roles and and what we need from them, you know, if this is something that the road they want to go down. And then obviously, uh, NCAA eligibility is a big part of that. So, um, these are all initiatives that we thought were pretty successful this year and
065we're looking forward to continue to to to grow those in the coming year. So, with that, if you guys have any any questions about anything, I'd be happy to answer them. Um, I just want to say I appreciate your camp schedules being out. I really You're welcome. That's been very helpful. Yeah, we tried to push them up, right? Because I know you do have a lot of students who are interested in programs and just making sure that they have that opportunity to see it before. So, thank you. You're welcome. I will say I think you know we've got some brand new facilities, some sort of brand new facilities and you guys are making it all worthwhile. I mean you're putting in we're we're trying to provide you with a great place to play and y'all
066are certainly showing that you you've earned it and deserved it. So I appreciate that. Yeah. And I'm super excited to hear about the recruiting stuff cuz as you know I worked with a lot of kids over the years trying to help them sign up for recruiting and the parents don't understand and the poor kids are trying to figure it out their junior year and that's just way too late. So I'm super excited to to hear that you guys are doing that. So wonderful. As much as it is about the accolades and stuff um you know the life lessons that are taught are you you can't put a value on that. And that is why I'm such a big advocate of of high school athletics. I know that they are just invaluable. They they the amount
067of time and energy that the coaches pour in those kids um you know a lot of those kids don't have you know that type of parental figure in their life and the coaches become that and it's evident across all the all the fields in in the gym. Um guys, girls, you name it. It has been amazing to watch and you can tell there's just a a shift uh in the mentality of of Bulldog athletics when you go out there really representing the the high character stuff is really translating and uh as a former alumni I'm super super proud to see the progress and stuff that's been taking place across the district and I really appreciate every coach and all the hours you pour into this. So thank you. Another little accolade that uh you know
068I talked to you and the fine arts about last year that Lone Star Cup right um it's an accumulation of uh all sports band um one act it has accumulation of all of that Leaport's finished at tied for 36 out of over 2 20 5A schools and u and I'm not sure coach Torres if they messed up on yours yet but I think you y'all won your first series right so if that's if they give them those two extra points they're going to be up to tie the 26 six and that's up from 54 last year. So, as a team in UIL, I know it's just sports. I was going to wait till the fine arts, but it includes all of that, too. I mean, UIL academics, I think. Yeah, it's everything. So, I mean,
069it's it's showing that we are moving up. Yes, sir. So, and that's a good thing. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Go with item D. I'll find arts update. Dr. Burke. Good evening, President Hanks, Dr. Jackson, ladies and gentlemen of the board. This is absolutely my favorite meeting of the year as I get to brag on our programs and talk to you about all the great things going on. On a personal note though, if I could take just a quick liberty, I do want to personally welcome Dr. Amanda Smith. Uh she was actually one of the individuals on my committee for my doctorate and she actually put the hood on me uh at graduation. So I I just want to So LPISD performing visual arts and I
070do want to echo uh Coach Thompson's sincere sincere thoughts on your support for us and everything that you do. We cannot do this without you and our kids cannot do this without you. So absolutely thank you very much. So, our enrollment by the numbers, our art program from 6 through 12 is 944. Our band number 628, this is grades 6 through 12. Theater 496, orchestra 433, our choir programs at 403, and our dance is at 151. 72% of LPISD secondary students are currently enrolled in a performing in visual art. From Baker, Leaport Jr., Lomax Jr., and through the high school. 100% of our elementary students have are enrolled in music while still being receiving rotation of art per week. And this year, as we spoke about last year, looking forward, we were able to add
071two sections of junior high dance, one at each campus, and it's turned out to be just an absolute busting success. We're really proud of those programs. Yes. Cannot go without talking about our elementary music programs. I like to brag on these teachers the most because it all starts right there. And if you ever have a day that you're just feeling down about life, walk into an elementary music. You saw our heritage performers tonight. And our teachers do do such amazing things. We use online curriculum such as music play, our quaver's wonderful world of music. We do innovative and you've seen it through this year with our students playing the ukuleles, our percussion groups, as well as our coral group. And I'm going to speak to our fifth grade honor choir in a moment. So, this
072is just a I could I could stay here all night if we did the full list, but this is just the snapshot of as much as I could fit in with a limited amount of time that we had. R UI marching band was a region marching uh sweepstakes award winner. They moved on to the area marching finalist position where they took 12th overall. So, it was really proud of that uh event at the US bands in Channel View uh invitations. They came in top five of the finalist category. Our LPHS indoor drum line and winterguard took sec or took second place in the Texas color guard circuit and fifth place respectively. Drum line then the color guard. Between our choirs, orchestras, and bands at our junior highs and high schools, we collected 14 UIL concerts
073and site reading evaluation sweep stakes andor division one awards. We had and from again from our junior highs up in all three divisions, 36 TMEA Texas Music Educator Association region students at our high school. We had six TMEA area qualifying participants and our three all-state band students at the TMA level. uh Santiago Baliseros, Evan Halvadier, Richard Ortagon, and I think it's important to note that Santiago came in fifth in the state overall of all 5A percussionists. So that was a real great We also had a lot of new things this year. For this year, the CHATA, our dance team, participated in the Texas Dance Educator Association Dance Team Evaluation pilot program for the first and this is the first time it ever happened across the state of Texas. So, they received a superior rating and
074an excellent rating, excuse me, and and it was just cold and miserable that day and the girls just did outstanding at Clear Creek ISD. Chad's f uh they came in 22 22 total team and individual dance awards through their season. They received the best in class, three grand champions in their class, six first place runnerups in their class. Haley Hanks was our allstate dance participant for the TDEA uh convention. Our high school musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Code, involved over 200 students and volunteers, not just fine arts students, over 200 total. Our LPHS theater department during the one act UIL one act play was district 5A champion and they advanced to the by district level. From that production, eight student awards were handed out for all-star standout students, honorable mention and outstanding technician
075award. From this program, 14 new students will be inducted into the international thespian society. Moving on to our art program, 30 LPISD elementary, junior high, and high school students advanced as finalists to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Art Competition at NRG Arena. 31 LPHS art students will going to be displayed this year in the bianual publication of the anthology of art which we will hopefully get a copy of at some point. When we do I'll put it on display for us. This year we had honor choir last year but it was kind of a tagalong. We were piloting it seeing how it went. This year was the first year we actually had a standalone fifth, fourth and fifth grade LPISD elementary choir and they did their first concert two weeks ago. And if if
076you if you were able to go to it was absolutely outstanding. They spent the entire day uh with a clinician who is f first time these kids ever sang together and they just did an amazing job. They got here at they got to the high school at 9:00 and their concert was at 6:00. So it was a long day. We fed them pizza. They had a blast. Uh, but I just think it was it was the the te and I I want to speak to them for a m just a quick brief moment. If you ever had to wrangle fourth and fifth graders in a theater entire day and keep them entertained the entire day, they did yman's work. So, it was absolutely incredible. Um, so those are just some of our awards and accomplishments.
077I again I could go on for six more slides but I wanted to hit uh most of our highlights. You know when we talk about our performances we're always talking about UIL. We're talking about Christmas. We're talking about uh things that are happening on our campuses. But I think the most important one of the most important parts of these programs are our students are ambassadors of our school district and our community. So, I think it's really important to highlight times that they go out in the community and represent what we are. You know, you turn on the TV now and it's, oh, this high school did this and this high school did that and this and this and it's just it's hard sometimes with the negative. These are the positives. These are the great things
078that our students did. And I just want to highlight a few. Of course, our Christmas is on Maine. We might as well just call it Leaport ISD on Maine because that's what it is every year. And and it's just that's an incredible event. Silven Beach Parade. Uh we had our orchestras participate in the Moody Gardens Festival of Lights uh where they got to go down and they were the entertainment for everybody walking through on those cold winter nights. Uh so that was a real fun thing for them to get to do. We played for the o opening of the Houston Yacht Club. Our orchestra does that every year uh first Sunday or a Sunday in uh the fall. We played for the city of Leaport State of the City address. Uh we played for the
079Leaport Rotary Club. Uh we opened Pinchup Penny uh supplies grand opening up on uh Spencer Highway. Our drum line participated in that. Uh Heritage Elementary got to participate as ambassadors from this district to go to and experience NASA. art choir from there went down got to spend uh a good portion of their day with the national uh NASA program and then they got well not the same day but they did get to perform at the Houston Astros uh singing the national anthem. Our Baker band got to participate in Gatorfest. And if you've never heard of Gatorfest, it's a junior high competition where seventh and eighth grade bands go in and it's pretty much evaluated like UIL or any other festival. We took all of our sixth graders down there and Miss Scaggs they got how
080many? I'm sorry. How many ones did they get? Oh, sweep stakes. Sweep stakes for our sixth graders. So that and you have to understand you have to understand Baker's day musically is trumpets in this class, clarinets in this class, percussion in this class. So the only time they get to play together is when we can have an after school rehearsal. So when they got to play an after school rehearsal and then went to compete, that was sometimes the only time those band students actually got to meet each other. So it it was but it was a great day and they really enjoyed it. And uh Lomax Junior High Choir got to sing at the Houston Sabrecats rugby game. I'm going to be honest with you, I didn't even know we had a Saber Cats rugby,
081but we do. That's I was That's That's awesome. So, those are some of the those are some of our performances that are kind of off the radar, but those are the performances that I think those that's what the kids get really excited about. It's something different. They're not just playing for what I call three lamp posts in a in an auditorium or three judges when they're dancing or anything. They get to actually see they can see their audience and they got to play some really cool things. So, our upcoming performances just some snapshots of course are going to be tomorrow at the Orange and White game. Archadoo in our band. We got to see them and put them up in the stands in the last uh week to see where everything is going to be
082fitted and we we think we've worked out all the kinks, but the travel time between getting up from the upstairs to the downstairs and we're we're going to we're going to get that down before the fall happens. Uh our LPISD orchestras Baker through the high school are combining to go June 1st to the Houston Astros to play the national anthem. So, there'll be a sea of fiddles out in center field, which is going to be a really cool event. The week after that, or week and a half after that, Lomax Elementary will be going to perform. The Astros really like us. I'm starting to sense that they really like our programs. On the 16th through the 19th, we'll be having our annual fine arts ele our elementary fine arts camp at Heritage. And we are
083still taking uh registration for that. Anyone that's online, please punch in. Okay. And this isn't an upcoming performance, but it's pretty exciting. We're starting the process of designing and getting in the in the chamber our new band and chhatto uniforms. So, that's coming up this fall. So, hopefully delivery probably in the spring, but it's processes through. So, that's it from our end. Uh I do want to recognize if I and I do have one other comment on Monday morning and this came out before after I put the presentation together. We were awarded Monday morning just got notification that we are for the fifth time one of the best communities in music education awarded by the National Association of Music Merchants. So real excited about that. There's no doubt about that on Monday. Um, and I
084do want to recognize the folks that do make this all happen. We have, um, Jason Harvey from the high school band, Will Mhos from the high school. Uh, gentlemen, if you, uh, ladies and gentlemen, if you would stand up, please. Um, Mark Finel, our high school band director from Leport Junior High, Mr. Donald McCandless from Lomax Junior High. Uh, Mr. Kevin Poe from Baker. We have Karen Scaggs, Jonathan Williams, uh, all the their band program. from Lomax Junior High, Miss Morgan Hansen, our choir director, and she also is the choir, one of the choir directors at Baker. Uh Connor Macauen from Leaport Jr. and the other choir director at Baker. Uh we have Miss Christina Hoffman, our Baker teacher of the year, orchestra at Baker. From our elementaryaries, we have Miss Shelby Zika from Lommax
085Elementary, Miss Jamie Loophold from Heritage Elementary, and we have Miss Mona Gibbs from Ruto Elementary. So if we can do all those and I think and I think it's important because this gentleman has been here for just about every meeting and he's about there at every single game. I think he represents some of our parents uh the best and it's Mr. Roger Allen from the Lefort High School. hoping to have more folks here tonight, but tonight is a orchestra concert and an art show and we had a chado booster meeting. So, we still have we're not done quite yet for the year, so we still have a lot of things going on. Thank you guys. Um, that's it from from the fine arts world. Any questions or concerns that I can help you with? I
086just want to say, you know, what I said about the athletics, you know, any of the extracurricular activities that these kids have to learn of work ethic and and teamwork and perseverance and grit and all those things, it's evident in these programs. Um, I have I don't I guess the Chad has been a tagalong experience for me with the with the band the last several years, six years, seven years with both girls, but it has been a fun ride. Um, Miss Solo, uh, obviously I my kids went through our program at Heritage and then to see them tonight. It's amazing. Uh, you do a great job year in and year out. All our teachers do. But, uh, just again, I appreciate all the extra effort and the hours that you put on put in above
087and beyond um, every day to see that our kids uh, are well-rounded and and contributing and and learn the valuable things that are going to serve them the rest of their life. So, thank you all for your efforts. I did forget one individual and I do want to recognize her. It's Miss Marilyn Newman. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you. Board will move on to our budget finance update. Thank you all. This is really depressing news. All right. Uh, good evening board of trustees. Tonight we'll be I will be presenting the the financial update for the port ID. It's not going to be quite as as entertaining as we are. So, please please forgive me. Um, but I'm going to do my best. Okay. You still bringing cupcakes or something? I need to do something.
088Right. I I know. I I'll try I'll take that. So this presentation we're going to focus on a couple of topics here. So state funding overview, the historical information for report ISD. Uh we're also going to discuss our fiscal year 2025 general fund estimated uh ending balance and next steps that we can expect and then any questions that y'all might have. But of course, you know, as if there's any questions come up throughout, please let me have it. in in the in the nicest way possible. So, um what you'll see in front of you is our fiscal budget timeline. So, I I kind of revamped the one I had been giving you for the past couple years to to make it a little bit uh flashier. So, uh you as you notice there's three colors
089on here. So, we've got and they represent the three fiscal years that we deal with throughout one year. So, um, if we start in January, the orange is fiscal year 26, which is what we are going to be budgeting for, and we will be discussing that at our budget workshop on, uh, next Tuesday. We are just finalized 2024 fiscal year this in March. And then, um, the green is fiscal year 25, which is what we're in. So, let's just kind of start with January. January is when the budget planning begins for fiscal year 26. And like I said in March, now we're finally finishing up the previous uh fiscal year. In April, we will received our uh estimated property valuations that we used to create the budget for fiscal year 26. We are going to
090have our budget workshop. Next next week um in June, we will ask the board to uh adopt the budget at our budget hearing. And in July, we will actually receive our certified property values for 2026. In August, we receive our maximum compressed rate from TEA. Um, and then finally in September, then they'll actually tell us, okay, we kind of think preliminarily what this current year ended in. So, uh, the red stars are in July and August, those there are four things that we use, um, to create the budget. It's our, you know, our student enrollment and ADA, how much we how often we think that they're going to come to school, our property valuations and our tax um rate. So, two of those we don't have until after. We have to by law create the
091budget um and have you adopt the budget because if the board does not adopt the budget, we cannot write write a payroll. We can't spend a dime for it starting July 1st. So, so how are districts funded? This is a I kind of took a a a slide that I'd seen somewhere else and and made it added some more to it. So it it it spills, you know, it tells you a story. So you see two different types of uh of cups here. And the size of your cup tate of Texas, they decide how big your cup is depending on how many kids are enrolled, right? So the more kids you have, the bigger your cup. But uh there and if you have a bigger cup then you get to keep more of your tax
092rate and you get to keep more of your state funding. So uh what fills up that cup is your they first they take it at all your local property tax and then they say okay if you haven't met met that amount for the amount that we have calculated you should get for your size district we're going to give you some state funding. So, if your property revenue goes up, your state funding goes down. You get less of it because you're filling your cup up with your tax revenue. But if your tax revenue goes down, you're going to get more of your state revenue to make you whole. So, whenever we talk about like keeping you whole, that's that's really what it is. It's between these two um buckets of money that the state says that
093you get or that we get or any district gets. And it's dependent on the uh not just the enrollment, it's it's dependent on how many kids actually come to school. So that's why, you know, when we speak of ADA, the average daily attendance, we're actually not going to know what that is until the end of the year. So as we go through, we're you know, we're we every 6 weeks we take, okay, this is what we are now. But you know, at the beginning of the year, you have higher attendance because everyone's excited about go to school and then you get closer to the end of the year and your attendance kind of drops a little bit. So, it averages it out over the year. Is there any questions about how I mean I'm sure
094there's Yeah, I have some comments. I have some comments. Okay. So, what happens when that glass gets too full? So, we we know this well, it's recaptured. So, when the class the glass if it stays the same size, but your property revenue is more than the state says you need, then we have to give it back to the state. So, in the past 15 years, Leaport has paid over $457 million back to the state and recaptured. And that is supposed to be then given out to districts who aren't as property wealthy as as we are, but we don't really know what happens to them. So, we'll just say that. Um, so it goes into a big pile and it gets out, but it creates a surplus. It creates a billions and billions of dollars of
095surplus. So, our current, this is for fiscal year 2025. That's what we're going to talk about. So, our current Stacy, I'm sorry. Let me stop you on that previous slide. I just want to draw attention to that 457 number that that's at least 3 years of our operational budget. Correct. Uh, it's more it's more than our Yeah, it would be about four years. Okay. Just wanted to acknowledge that. Okay. Want to know this for 15 years. So that really good song. You wasteful waste better. Sorry. Yes. This it's it's been more than 15 years. I just took the past 15 years. Yeah. Yeah. It would have really that really hurts. So go I'm sorry. That's when it started. Yes. Um, so our current tax rate is uh less than a dollar. It's 9739. So we
096have the two buckets. Again, we talk about the buckets and the glasses. Um, so the buckets, there's two rates that make up our current tax rates. You have your maintenance operations, which is um that's our daily bills, how we pay our people, how we pay for the lights, pay for the buildings, pay for the maintenance, pay for everything like that. Um that is 7220. And then our interest in syncing is what we pay our bond debt. So that's paying our loans back. Um and the two cannot mix. So they are two separate buckets at all times. Um kept completely separate in separate funds. Uh so that tax rate is 0.2519. So as we go through, let's just we're going to kind of focus in on a little bit on the M tax rate. Um and
097these are slides that you I'm sure you've seen you know you've heard it before but I it's always a refresher as we go into the budget bill to time. So uh the state create yeah they they say okay here is how much your M tax rate is again this is your maintenance and operations tax rate. So they have it in different tiers. So your tier one they tell us this is what they give us that maximum compress rate. They tell us that in August and that's based on what our property values are that we got in July plus what they think our our uh student count is going to be our ADA. So they they do a calculation and they say okay Leaport your maximum tax rate is 6420 and we're going to take recapture
098out of that. And then they go to okay but we're going to give you these golden pennies um which is what we call tier two and none of these pennies are part of recapture. So, um, the first four pennies we automatically every district gets. Then you can get another penny. So, that's your five pennies that the board voted upon many years ago that we can have that extra penny. Then you get into, okay, well, you've got 12 more pennies. Um, and so to get those 12 pennies, you can either do a disaster rate if you qualify for a disaster rate or you have to hold um a VATRE, which is a tax rate election um to get those 12 pennies. And so when you add all of those up um you get what your MO
099tax rate is. So only the three pennies um that are in the blue there that are part of the either disaster or um or part of the Vader, those are not subject to recapture, but the last nine are. So So where do we stand in comparison with our tax rate to our our surrounding districts? So, we have the second lowest tax rate. Um, Clear Creek is just a tiny bit lower than we are. And then Crosby is, uh, about 30 cents more. So, um, or yeah, this is kind of where we fall out. The blue is the M piece. The orange is your INS piece, which is to pay back the loan. And then in total, the gray tells you how much the tax rates are. So, historically, we're just going to look at Leaport
100ISD here. Historically, our tax rate um I went back from 2018 2019. So that's fiscal year 2019. We started at uh we had a tax rate of $138 and now we for the past two years we've had a tax rate at 9739. So um real quick. So that's a decrease of 40 cents and since 2019 of our tax rate. Um, as you'll see too, you'll see a big drop off here between 2023 24 where you had a $125 down to the 0.97. That is the year that we no longer um had a disaster rate that we could use and it's also the year that the state compressed our MCR by 10 cents. So, we lost 28 cents in that one year. So, our average daily attendance is another um historical fact that we'll we'll look
101at here. Again, this is um going back to 20 to 21. That's the co year and then kind of going up. Now, this is average daily attendance. This is non-enrollment. So, as we stand right now for 2425, we have an estimated average daily attendance of 6,435. We have an enrollment right around 7,100. So if we were funded on enrollment, which that is not going anywhere, um that that died very quickly. That bill died. Um but if if in a perfect world we were because we have to f we have to staff for full enrollment. We have to, you know, we have buildings for full enrollment. Um if we were paid for the 7,100 that we are um required to offer, you know, a place for um that's $6.8 8 million that we would have. So,
102our property valuation is another factor that we talked about. Um, so as you can see from 21, uh, fiscal year 21, it was 11 billion. Now, we're at 14.7. Now, this is the property tax value. This is called their T2 value that our controller gives us. So, what does that take? It takes what our actual property valuation is and it decreases out any of the homestead exemptions. So our property valuation is really 15.1 billion. But for 2425 it's when you take out the homestead exemptions we are going to be able to have tax revenue based off of 14.7. And as you'll see from 23 24 it was 13.6 and then in one year it increased to a whole billion dollars. And that is all industry. I mean, it's very little, you know, homes. So, let's
103talk about where we think we might end up for fiscal year 2025. I know we're all excited to get to this slide. Um, and it is better than what we we imagined. Again, it always seems to be better than always imagined because of the estimates of what we have to to deal with. Um, and I'm going to talk about that. Before I I go through the reasons of the deficit change, I kind of wanted to go through the the um table with you. So, our amended budget, we thought, okay, we're going to get $106 million. And we thought our expenses would be about 94 million and our recapture payment would be 26 million. So, if you add the 94 to the 26, you get total expenses of 12 $20 million. So 106 of revenue minus
104120 of expenses, that's a decrease of the 14 million. Um, and you you'll remember too that what y'all adopted last June was actually 12.6 million deficit. But in um o October, we had to bring a budget amendment to you and actually decrease what we thought our revenue was going to get because our chapter 313 payments, right, change every year. and they give us the estimate in May, but we don't get the actuals until the fall. So, we realized, okay, that's what they what our um our consultant said we we're going to get. And again, this is all based on those contracts are based change every year depending on um so many factors and so it's really hard to like pigeon hole exactly what it is. So, that's why it jumped up to uh 14 million
105uh of a deficit. So our fund balance the any fund balance was 61 million. So that would have left us at 47 million. So what we are estimated to what we think we are going to get or what we have already received um what we've already received on the revenue piece 117 million. Now, that's because of that $1 million jump from 23 24 because again, we have to we budget on what we know in November. I mean, in April, which is that around the 13th and then ended up being a whole million more. So, that means we got so much more revenue. Um, $11 million more in revenue. So, our expenses are again, our expenses is at 89 right now. that's estimated with where we think we're going to end up with payroll, where we
106think we are going to end up with um our non-payroll expenditures, but again, we won't really know that until we're done June 30th. So, we've still got a couple of, you know, um a month and a half to really kind of work that. We're hoping it's going to be that, but we, you know, we're going to wait and see. So, since our revenue increased, our tax revenue increased, your recapture increases also. Um, so instead of 26 million, we're expected to pay 35 million. So your 89 million of expenses plus your 35 of recapture will give you your total expenses of $125 million. Um, so that's just a $7 million change. So, we are actually instead of a $14 million deficit, we're looking estimated to be a $7 million deficit, which would put our fending our
107ending fund balance at 54 million. Um, in 150 days, as we know, we like to keep 150 days as it would be 51. So, we would still be in the in the realm um above the realm. Are there any questions on this before I move on? Okay. So, next steps, uh, May 20th, we're going to have a board workshop which will discuss, um, our compensation options and, uh, we'll give you, uh, a look at what we think the fiscal year 2026 budget will be and what we believe the legislature will have done by that time. We're hoping we're well I mean we we're hoping um we are going to we need to we we will budget on at one current law which is what we have right now and understanding that we can we will
108amend it depending on whatever because as we go through the next steps here June 2nd is the end of the 89th legislative session. Um June 10th we will have the board uh the public hearing for discuss the the budget tax rate and then June 22nd is actually the last day that uh Governor Abbott can approve and make bills into law. So that's going to be after we approve the board ask you to approve the budget and then June July 1st we start fiscal year 2026. Any questions that I can answer for anybody? My question go back started a rate. I don't know what it was. It was pretty high and it kind of came down. It did. This is a silly question, but do we have any flexibility on the maximum capacity of our rate
109currently? I know we can't do much in theory raise that number. Okay. So, um yes and no. So um yes you can raise it up to it. I remember that we u went to the board when we asked to pass this bond um the 2023 bond we we were at the 2819 and we told them we we can pay for this bond without raising it. So really the cap because of the promises that we've made to the community is at 2819. Um you can make it whatever you need. there is a calculation that we have to go through because we know what our bond payments are going to be and we need to be able to raise enough money through um cuz INS is not subject to recapture. So whatever we get from that we
110can keep it. There are also rules um with our with the comproller because we have to do a a truth and taxation worksheet and it that's posted on our website and it's get goes to the state that says that you cannot you you can only raise you can only put an IS tax rate right because they don't want you to to pad your an over tax. Guess what gets to me is that some have a lot of money on the books from the 14 bond rate. No, it's done. All done. All of it's done. Yes. We We spent it down. We spent that before we spent the 2023, which gives us a little while you on the board. We still have funding like the debt wise. We still owe on that, right? Oh, yes. I'm
111sorry. I thought you meant fund funding. Yes, we still 14 was much higher than the current raising, right? So there is another way to do this, but you could technically well you can't because there's a calculation of what when when a bond is sold when we go to the it says okay it already has out here's all the payments that you're going to make and so it it lays it lays it out and what what's in my head right now is when Doug Wick comes and talks to us and he shows you the the payments and then it kind of goes down and I can send that to you the last one. Yeah. So the that's that's already built in. When when we sell a bond, we know, okay, this is this is the tax
112rate we need to be able to pay for all of this through the through the life of that. Your car payment or your mortgage payment for 30 years or whatever, right? It's itization. And there are there are bills out there right now that say, okay, uh you that hopefully they're not going to go anywhere. I'm not really sure where they if they left the state or the or the the senate or the house yet, but um that state what they want to do is to to say, "Okay, you can only make your honest rate exactly what you need to pay your bills versus building your your fund balance up a little bit to be able because they don't want us to be able to pay uh the early redemptions." You know, we've we've paid over
113$32 million in in the save tax. Yeah, they don't that that doesn't play into their narrative and so they don't really want us to do that. In the past when we have paid bonds off earlier, we doing that out of um fund balance that fund balances and we're just looking at when interest rates are at a certain point to be able to pay those off early and save. Okay. She said, "Well, I mean, we we we because we use we, you know, as you can see in from 23 to 24 are well, from this year from 2425, our INAS rate actually I apologize this is wrong in here. It's 0.2519, not 2819. Okay, cross that out. Remember, we we were able to to maneuver our INS rate to be able to do that three cent
114disaster rate. Yes. to to keep our tax rate the same to get the same. Yes. Yes. And we were able to do that. But in 26, we will need to add a penny back and then add a penny back because our payment plan is to pay off. Yes. And the goal of the redemption paying them off and taking advantage of the tax rate is just like you were able to do in 23 when we were able to call for that bond and not raise the tax rate. was because this district even prior to me coming here had already paid down so many bonds. You had you had the roomap and so we're trying to protect the future when we're not here and on the board those things the next level of administrators can do the
115same cuz we've been really really conservative on paying down so that you have the way to do that and the room to do that down the road. I applaud you guys on obviously nobody wants to take a deficit but 7 million is a lot better than 14 but my hope is you guys all Uh, some magical fairy dust always happens where like we end up better even than the estimate, right? So, is there a chance? I know you can't tell me. Definitely. Like I would love to be able to tell. A couple years ago, we we was it we over we had a overpayment on the recapture and got $5 million back. Is that a possibility? Uh, well, it was because our property valuation changed and so we had overpaid recapture based on the property
116valuation that was there, but we did an audit for our property valuation and they came back and said, "Oh, no." like what they said you were going to get in valuation versus what you did was off and that was about yeah 3 million so I'm looking back at your slide the estimated budget millions 71 and we had a increase in our estimated revenue to 117 so it's plus 11 million yes but we net 2 million because recapture got nine of it Right. Mhm. And that would have been that would have been the balance to run us a neutral a balanced budget and you that and that's because I'm sorry because of industry though, right? It that increase was industry. It wasn't because of the homestead. No, it was not. We were we were held harmless
117from the homestead. So that goes to this slide where if you have, you know, your if you have less um your cup is this size, but if you have less property valuation, they're going to give you more state. So that's how they hold you. Again, the narrative with the the increase in property values, the school districts net more money, and that's not true. You know, and it's definitely not to the scale that others want you to believe. At the end of the day, it's not true. We could have run a balanced budget and done been, you know, it would have been a lot closer. Yes, sir. Very close. It would have been a lot closer. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anything else I can help you out with? We'll be bringing more information at the
118workshop as well. Hopefully some things will happen. I know we make a lot of comments tongue and cheek, but obviously it's a very sensitive deal and and you know there's some there are some viable solutions out there and we just need them to be acted upon so we can do what we need to do to to take care of our kids. Um and it's just it's so frustrating. But thank you for the report. Um board will go to item nine, our consent agenda. The board will now proceed to our consent agenda. Unless removed from the consent agenda, items identified within this consent agenda will be acted on at one time. A. Determine and approve any consent agenda items. B. Approve board meeting minutes. One, regular board meeting minutes, April 8, 2025. Two, called board meeting
119minutes April 22nd, 2025. Special board training meeting minutes, April 29th, 2025. T receive principles report. One, early childhood center. Two, Behore Elementary. Three, College Park Elementary. Four, Heritage Elementary. Five, Jenny Reed Elementary. Six, Leaport Elementary. Seven, Rudo Elementary. Eight, Lomx Elementary. Nine, Baker Sixth Grade Campus. 10, Leaport Junior High. 11, Lomx Junior High. 12, Leaport High School. 13, DeWalt High School. D, notice of employment of professional staff. E, receive financial reports March 2025. F. Receive human resources report. D receive quarterly investment report. H approve 2025 2026 certification of provision of instructional materials. I approve 2025 2026 Harris County Department of Education interlocal agreement of academic behavior school ABS East. J approve 2025 2026 Harris County Department of uh education interlocal agreement for High Point School East. K. Approve optional flexible school day program of SDP
120application for the Academy of DeWalt High School. L approved proposal and purchase of - switches and wireless access points. M approve uh proposals for supplemental uh professional development consultants and related services and materials. N approved purchase of Cisco Flex subscription. O approved purchase of iPads and related products. B approved purchase I'm sorry. Yep. Thank you. removed. Q adopt a resolution number 2025-05 for schools and libraries universal services rate for 2025 2026. Vice President Martin, will you please read back our consent agenda? Mr. President, we have items A for approval A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O and Q. All right, I'll take a motion to approve our consent agenda. So moved. Take a second. Second. All right. Call for a vote. Oh. All right. Well, the record
121show is unanimous. Show we all voted with our new gadget. So, we'll now move on to item 10, action on close session items. We do not have any action items. 11. Closing comments of the board of trustees and superintendent. We would like the floor. I'll start. Uh it's been a long day. Been a long year. Uh good luck the next two and a half weeks. Uh it's going to be hard, but uh y'all can I'm glad I only got a week. We're done next week. So, uh y'all got a whole another week. Looking more forward to tomorrow and getting out there at Bulldog Stadium, seeing what's going to happen out there. It's going to be a beautiful day. Um, so this time of year it gets really busy like uh so much going on and
122I just want to give Dr. Jackson kudos on keeping up with all the things on the schedule because he's everywhere. Um, we get invited to a lot of stuff. Um, and it's hard for us to make everything as a board, but he's at so much. So, I just want to say like I don't know does he teleport or there's there's got to be something some magic to it, but um he's everywhere and I appreciate that so much because our students see it and they appreciate it and I know our staff and hopefully they you know get that same sense of support that um you know he he's putting out there. So, thank you so much for for doing that and being everywhere. Um but we wouldn't feel so busy if there weren't so many amazing
123things to celebrate. Um and um so when we look at our calendars and it's like it's got a lot going on. I I also am feel very blessed and very fortunate to be in this district and to be where we are. Not only on the board, but as a parent, you know, my kids got to participate in lots of things the last few weeks. Um I do have to give kudos to that Baker band for that sweep stakes. It that was exciting. Um and my daughter's never been interested in an instrument before, so they've worked magic um over there. I would like to he said putting them all together in one place and like okay let's see what y'all can do. It it really truly is is amazing to see what they do. But um
124but all of our programs I mean just all the extracurricular all of the academics everything like it's it's all been worth it for this moment just the year and the celebrations that come with it. So please truly take a moment and enjoy every bit of it. um because this is all um everybody's celebration um our students, our staff, our admin, everybody um has worked so hard all year for this. So, thank you and um looking forward to celebrating with you all. Um I would like to thank everyone all the all the schools uh the school district. So, a couple years ago, we we started listening to ISD as a presenting sponsor with us for the Sil Beach uh festival. Uh the schools do so much the parade pageant. I mean, there's so many things that
125go into that and so we're so blessed that you allow us to use your facilities and you guys come out. It's awesome to see all the kids and and people participate in that parade. So, and I know it's a lot of work to make that happen. So, we are so thankful for all those that that help to to put that together. So, thank you. Uh it's probably one of the best Sil Beach. I I've been a part putting that on for the last 16 years and it's by far the uh the best one we've had. And so, God is good. We had we think almost 30,000 people come through the gate and no major injuries uh or incidents uh couple little skirmishes but nothing crazy with that amount of people. So uh God is good
126and we just again thank you Dr. Jackson and your team for helping us to put that on. Um Melissa, to your point, we've had so many things going on. Last week we had the chance to go to the wrap-up meeting for the helps mentoring and it was really cool to see all the different mentors and people that are pouring back uh into our kids on a weekly basis. And uh what gave me the most joy is it like it's not just helps there there's so many uh different clubs and things that have happened the last couple years under your watch Dr. Jackson for kind of embracing our community. Uh we have so many businesses and and retired teachers and people that want to pour back into these kids and you've allowed that to happen. So
127and I really truly believe that it's it's it's bearing fruit for the better with our kids. Um and I'll say this as as a Leaport graduate right I grew up well Clear Lake was always better in Lort. Deer Park's always better than Leport. of all we ever heard, right? And it's part it's part of the reason I wanted to be on the school board because I got I'm competitive and I got sick and tired of hearing it. But it feels like for the first time ever, like quite literally, at least in my lifetime, like people are there's like a buzz around Leaport. Like we talked about the athletics and the fine arts, but I mean it's kind of across like the I mean I hear so many positives. It's evidenced by the the the talent
128and the people that are joining us on your team. uh and I hear from parents and so again a kudos to everybody uh every teacher and every administrator for helping us to change that culture because I I absolutely it again I work at the chamber of commerce but we're hearing it like what's going on the port so uh it's been a really cool thing to to be a small part of so thank you guys for that y'all get ready first I want to say the heritage choir tonight just blew me away with that. So, kudos to them. Um, and I'm going to file my next comment under outstanding performance by district staff. Here we go. I wrote it down so I wouldn't misspeak. Let me turn my microphone on. Our state legislature has exactly 19
129days left in session and public education funding is stalled in the Texas Senate. Our lawmakers made vouchers a priority, spending countless hours on a program that benefits only 100,000 students throughout the state. Meanwhile, 5.5 million public school students and over 400,000 public school educators are still waiting. Districts across the state are working on next year's budget. Many are forced with tough decisions to suspend programs, lay off teachers, or close campuses. Yet, we wait on our legislature to perform their constitutional duty to fund public education. I urge everyone in this room and everyone listening to contact your senators via phone and email and implore them to hear House Bill 2 on the Senate floor. If you need help finding out how to reach your senator, you may email me at thompson dlpis. No, you may not.
130I will tell you my Yahoo email personally and I will tell you there because I cannot um election there. Well, not everybody though. Depends on where everybody lives. So, if you need help figuring out who that is or a phone number or an email address, I personally will help you do so because they need to be inundated from educators that we are tired of waiting. That's as nice as I can say that. I'm off my soap box. Well, Jeff stole some of my thunder, but you know, for the longest time, I used to always hear my mother say, "We are the bestkept secret in the area when we talk about Leaport ISD." And as a teacher, I used to stand in class and hear my kids say, "We're not as good at." so many years.
131And Alicia, you know, we've heard it of anybody that worked at the at the high school. There were so many years in there where our kids believed they were not as good as. And I am so excited now cuz I can see it. I see it in the kids. I see it in the classroom. I mean, my own my own kids. And I was so proud this past week looking on Facebook and seeing all of the amazing Leaport High School graduates that are graduating from universities all across the country with amazing degrees, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees. And then just today looking at all these teachers of the year that were Leaport ISD students. And so I'm just so excited, Dr. Jackson, because you took that bestkept secret and made sure that everybody knows about it.
132And I'm going to tell you right now, they don't like it. Leaport's not supposed to have nice things and those kids are just not as good as ours and now they're starting to realize that is all false. And so all of you out here have made that happen and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it and let's keep up the good work. So our kids know that every day is a great day to be a Bulldog and they need to be proud of it for the rest of their lives. I didn't know we were going to church. down here. Yeah. No, y'all know me. I get labeled a Homer all the time and and uh I sound like a broken record, but it does not make it any less sincere. It is it
133truly is remarkable when you walk on the campus. Um it's undeniable. I mean, you see it. I mean, the Helps mentoring, obviously, that is a great program. It's a great window into uh the great happenings that are going on on the campus. But you see these kids light up because someone believes in them for the first time and they start to believe in themselves for the first time and you're having these bro breakthroughs every day somewhere. And um I don't know um if it's the the social media has just brought it more to the forefront or we're more aware of it but when you walk around there is a great sense of pride that has been buried for a long time. And you know same thing as as an alumni it it is refreshing. It
134is empowering. It is amazing to walk on our campus and and walk outside of our community and hear people talk finally about what's going on here. And it is uh something we hold. I think tomorrow, you know, it's not just a football stadium. We keep saying that, but it's truly not. I think people are going to see that for themselves finally. I'm excited for that experience. But I think the stadium more than anything, it's a symbol um that people can finally see the things that we see inside these four walls. So um to every teacher, every administrator, every person that's had a hand in our kids um and in raising them to be the uh the amazing kids that they are. Your break is coming. It's it's right there. It's real close. Um, and I
135hope you truly truly embrace it and and enjoy it and uh that you're present in that in that, you know, uh, refreshing and uh, but we truly truly truly appreciate everything that you do. It does not go unnoticed and you truly are making a difference in this community and ultimately the state and the country. So, um, we appreciate you immensely and, uh, thank you. So, just really quickly, Mr. President and board members, we're talking about the pride of the school district. We're talking about all the wonderful things that are happening. Has nothing to do with a personality. It has to do with a collective greatness that we're trying to tap into. And that does not happen unless a board decides number one to hire the right people, support the right people, and give them all
136of the things that they need to help the teachers and the principles to do the work. So the work that you're feeling and the changes that you're feeling and the pride and all of the things that you've just talked about, it's your civic and collective greatness and engagement. Um 3 years ago, this board that I'm talking to right now had the guts to call for a 235 million bond to say, "We're going to we're going to allow these folks to tear down a 65year-old facility that everybody was emotionally attached to." That took true courage because you had to go out and see all of your friends and everybody that you grew up with and said, "Yeah, I gave them permission to do that." But tomorrow, we get to walk into, you know, the future. Literally,
137we're walking into the future. Literally, 75 years from now, most of us will not be here, but that building will still be standing. and our great grandchildren and children will be able to say my mom, my dad, you know, was my granddad, my great-granddad was that's his name right there. That's her name right there. So, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to just be a part of the greatness that's going on. It's collective greatness. It's synergy. It's us working together, not always agreeing. And um Jeff, I do want to give you public No, no, no, no. I'm getting ready to praise you publicly, but Jeff, I want to say Jeff, in my opinion, Jeff Martin is our ideas guy. When there's a good idea, he will pound until we at least
138listen to that idea. And he's right. The the whole HCA thing, Jeff brought it to my attention and said, "Let's get a meeting with them, doc, and let's just talk to him and see." And and so that therein tonight, you heard some of that. So, I won't I won't continue, but tomorrow evening, for those that are listening and those that are here, we certainly encourage you to come out because tomorrow evening at 6:00, this board that had the guts to do what they did and the fortitude to do what they did and the the vision to do what they did is going to cut the ribbon on the future for Leaport ISD in so many ways. And for that I am so in deeply indebted to you and uh and just I I I'll never
139forget you for allowing me to be a part of this. I'm not going anywhere. All right. But that is just something people and districts don't get to do every day. And so uh thank all of you for that. Uh Karen, your mother was very vocal in my interview and so I remember her sharing things that she wanted to see happen. Deian, you remember that and I'm so proud and I know she's looking down and saying, "Wow, wow, wow, wow." And so, thank you, board, for all that you do. Thank you. And this is not even my evaluation. See there? All right. And with all matter.